Bureau of Transportation Statistics updates national transportation data series

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National Transportation Statistics update

Highlights

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics released its October monthly update to National Transportation Statistics, expanding data on U.S. infrastructure, safety, and system mileage.
New datasets cover updated figures for U.S. transport-related GDP in billions of chained 2017 dollars, industry energy consumption, transit vehicle ages, and emissions breakdowns by type.
The National Transportation Statistics collection now includes over 200 regularly updated datasets, serving as a comprehensive resource for market participants monitoring long-term sector trends.

October update adds data across core transport measures

As reported by BTS, citing the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the agency has released its monthly update to National Transportation Statistics, a guide to historical national-level transportation trends in the U.S.

The update covers measures tied to the extent, condition, use and performance of transportation infrastructure, along with safety data on accidents, crashes, fatalities and injuries across transport modes and hazardous materials movement. It also includes transportation-related indicators for the economy, such as gross domestic product, employment by industry and occupation, consumer spending and government expenditures, as well as energy use.

This month's refresh includes new data for system mileage within the United States, the number of stations served by Amtrak and rail transit, ADA lift- or ramp-equipped transit buses, U.S. oil and gas pipeline mileage, and the number of U.S. aircraft, vehicles, vessels and other conveyances. BTS also updates tables covering the condition of U.S. highway bridges, the average age of urban transit vehicles, U.S. vehicle-miles, average length of haul for domestic freight and passenger modes, U.S. passenger-miles, and transportation fatalities by mode.

Dataset expansion supports long-term sector tracking

NTS also receives updated figures for transportation's contribution to the economy through U.S. gross domestic product attributed to transportation functions, measured in billions of chained 2017 dollars. Additional revisions cover transit industry electric power and primary energy consumption and travel, energy intensity of transit motor buses, and estimated U.S. emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide.

BTS says National Transportation Statistics was first published in November 1971 and has since expanded through the addition of materials from other Department of Transportation programs. The collection now contains more than 200 regularly updated datasets and tables, positioning it as a broad historical reference point for policymakers, operators and market participants tracking national transportation conditions.

In our earlier article on rising long-term U.S. borrowing costs, we explained how Treasury yields above 5% are feeding through to higher mortgage rates and widening fiscal pressure as deficits near $2 trillion. We also noted that political gridlock makes near-term deficit reduction unlikely, increasing the sensitivity of government finances and broader economic conditions to interest-rate moves.

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